Many of you probably thought what I did as Avery Bradley’s game-winning three somehow found a way to bounce into the net. “Umm..what the fuck just happened”. Then someone goes “uhh I think the Celtics just beat the Cavs.” How could it be that a team without their best player and lost by over 40 could avenge that loss with a win? Well, there’s a reason we play the games folks. As Charles Barkley proclaimed “The other team has professional basketball players too.” So obvious, yet so accurate. Oh and another thing; LeBron James played atrociously. He was flat out terrible, but what does this mean for him and the Cavs?
The two are kind of intertwined but let’s think about the last time LeBron even had a bad playoff game. To me, his last one that was bad to this magnitude was Game 3 of the 2011 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. He went 3-11 for 8 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists in nearly 46 minutes. What sticks out to you is his shooting percentage and shots or their lack of. 46 minutes and only 11 shots?? This was a tbt to passive LeBron, pre-ring LeBron, and when people thought the stage was too big for him. He did have his moments of shrinking under the pressure for sure. But this shows how long it’s truly been since he’s had such a bad game, nearly six years.
Now, what does it say about the king? It shows to you how dominant and consistent he truly is. That he goes 6 years without having a bad game in the playoffs and now people are freaking out. The fact the Cavs lost that game shows why LeBron is the MVP essentially every year. Kevin Love dropped 28 points and 10 boards, Kyrie had 29 on 10-15 shooting with 7 assists, Tristan Thompson even had 18 points and 13 boards. The Celtics were missing their offensive superstar in IT, and the Cavs couldn’t even WIN that game at home? Shit, that’s kind of sad. The Cavs are incapable of winning if LeBron isn’t great. Fortunately for the Cavs and their fans he’s great nearly every time he steps on the court, so much so we take it for granted.
I hear people whispering that he potentially “threw the game”. Which is just laughable to me. The amount of money and bookies involved to swing the line and persuade LeBron wouldn’t be plausible. Money isn’t an entity to LeBron, nobody in the sports community is judging him based on money. Rings? They’ll judge him on that though. Simply not a tangible means of ROI, (Return on investment) for him to EVEN consider doing this.
The dude played like shit, and for the first time in 6 years. Ok, it happens, how many times have you sucked at your job or in school? Probably more than once in the past six years, I know I for sure have. Count it as a bad and lackadaisical game by LeBron and the Cavs. Also, expect them to come back with a vengeance at home in Game 4.
Which is why I think this will actually be a good thing for the Cavs. They got complacent, success breads complacency, complacency breeds failure. Very simple. They got a little too high and were served “a slice of humble pie” in the words of Kyrie Irving. And that’s okay because they are certainly not losing this series and it’s better to now than in the Finals. The hunger will be back and more thirstful than ever.
The Celtics played harder and deserved to win that game, how it usually goes. The team that plays harder and competes wins the game. Hats off to the C’s for shocking the champs but I’m sorry I’ll continue to write them off. They don’t have a shot in this series. A combination of Cleveland going 2-17 from three in the second half plus 7-10 from three by Marcus Smart. I don’t see either of those trends continuing. I’ll tell you right now I wouldn’t want to be Boston in Game 4, Cleveland and the king will be coming for blood.
